About Us

Everything in the world is inter- and intraconnected. Yet, we can feel a growing sense of further division, powerlessness, and alienation. The world around us seems to fragment along deeper and deeper fault lines. The result: a sense of multiple crises stacked upon each other at the micro and macro levels. And yet, we can also witness and feel many small and large initiatives, happenings and people that create and uphold, steward and enable places and spaces to (re)-kindle and (re)member this intrinsic sense of shared aliveness.

We believe it is both possible and essential that we (re)weave healthy relationships with all that is alive. For this, we see it as necessary to re-imagine, co-create and foster collective capacities and practices to shift our ways of being and relating, thus enabling a culture of care and kinship rooted in radically shared aliveness.

The World Ethic Forum is dedicated to fostering this shift.

We are a diverse group of personalities from culture, politics, civil society, natural science, land stewardship, crafts, economy, and philosophy, all rooted in radically shared aliveness.

What is behind our name? From our perspective, what we call ‘ethic’ goes beyond values, core ideas of justice and rules of conduct: it entails attentiveness to and presence for the beings that are here with us, who share the world with us, and with whom we are in constant relationship. We are also keenly aware that the word ‘ethic’ is both central to Western philosophy and can be closely associated with extractive practices and anthropocentric worldviews. Therefore, it is one of the key knots to work through as we look to (re)weave healthy relationships and embody ways of being in the world that respect and celebrate all that is alive.

We believe that the deeper layers of our cultures hold precious learning for how to (re)gain awareness of our inter- and intraconnectedness, and (re)weave our relational fabric with the human and the more-than-human – or embody this renewed, ecocentrically rooted ethic. Reaching into those deeper layers, going down the roots, is a slow process. Together, we are engaging in a long-term exploration to listen, repattern, and learn from our diverse experiences and perspectives, with an initial seven-year arc.

A core group we call the Firekeeper Circle tends to this shared inquiry through online meetings throughout the year, and a yearly gathering in person. We also aim to serve as a contact point for projects, institutions, groups and individuals who want to engage with and support this emerging culture of care and kinship – including through a yearly public event, publications and a set of other activities.

In everything we do, our focus is on the ‘how’: our inner attitudes, our way of being in relationship with each other, our shared culture of creating, acting and engaging, our collective ability to work systemically, for today and for future generations. We believe that the experience of being part of a communal, shared process of being alive is both the process we must follow, and the goal we must aspire to.